Steve Farnfield describes a modification of the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), commonly used in the assessment of infant and pre-school children's attachment, for use in the assessment of sibling relationships. The modified SSP was developed for use in cases where social workers had to decide whether or not to split up groups of siblings for placement in adoptive or long-term foster homes. However, it can also be applied as an aid to understanding sibling interactions in other contexts as well as the attachment of siblings to one another and to birth or substitute parents. Following some practical and theoretical comments, an account of the procedure is given together with case examples.
AinsworthMDBleharMCWatersEWallS, Patterns of Attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation, Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1978.
2.
BebbingtonAMilesJ, ‘The background of children who enter local authority care’, British Journal of Social Work19: 1, pp 349–68, 1989.
3.
BeckettCGroothuesCO'ConnorTG, ‘The role of sibling group structure on adoption outcomes’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
4.
CrittendenPM, ‘Sibling interaction: evidence of a generational effect in maltreating infants’, Child Abuse and Neglect8, pp 433–38, 1984.
5.
CrittendenPM, ‘Quality of attachment in the preschool years’, Development and Psychopathology4, pp 209–41, 1992.
6.
CrittendenP, ‘Attachment and psychopathology’, in GoldbergSMuirRKerrJ (eds), Attachment Theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1995.
7.
CrittendenPMDiLillaDL, ‘Compulsive compliance: the development of an inhibitory coping strategy in infancy’, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology16, pp 585–99, 1988.
8.
DanceCRushtonA, ‘Sibling separation and contact in permanent placement’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
9.
Department of Health, Patterns and Outcomes in Child Placement, London: HMSO, 1991.
10.
DunnJ, Young Children's Close Relationships: Beyond attachment, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1993.
11.
DunnJKendrickC, Siblings: Love, envy and understanding, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
12.
DunnJSlomkowskiCBeardsallLRendeR, ‘Adjustment in middle childhood and early adolescence: links with earlier and contemporary sibling relationships’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry35: 3, pp 491–504, 1994.
13.
ElgarMHeadA, ‘An overview of siblings’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
14.
FarnfieldS, ‘A theoretical model for the comprehensive assessment of parenting’, British Journal of Social Work38: 6, pp 1076–99, 2008.
15.
FonagyP, ‘The mentalization-focused approach to social development’, in AllenJGFonagyP (eds), Handbook of Mentalization-based Treatment, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
16.
FonagyPGergelyGJuristELTargetM, Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self, London: Karnac Books, 2004.
GeorgeCSolomonJ, ‘Attachment and caregiving: the caregiving behavioral system,’ in CassidyJShaverP (eds), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.
19.
GoldsteinBP, ‘Black siblings: a relationship for life’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
20.
GunnarMRCheathamCL, ‘Brain and behaviour interface: stress and the developing brain’, Infant Mental Health Journal24: 3, pp 195–211, 2003.
21.
HarrisonC, ‘Children being looked after and their sibling relationships: the experience of children in the working in partnership with “lost” parents research project’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
22.
HegarRL, ‘Sibling placement in foster care and adoption: an overview of international research’, Children and Youth Services Review27: 7, pp 717–39, 2005.
23.
HindleD, ‘Clinical research: a psychotherapeutic assessment model for siblings in care,’ Journal of Child Psychotherapy33: 1, pp 70–93, 2007.
24.
HoweNRossHS, ‘Socialization, perspective-taking, and the sibling relationship,’ Developmental Psychology26: 1, pp 160–65, 1990.
25.
HowesC, ‘Attachment relationships in the context of multiple caregivers’, in CassidyJShaverP (eds), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.
26.
JacobvitzDRiggsSJohnsonE, ‘Cross-sex and same-sex family alliances: immediate and long-term effects on sons and daughters’, in ChaseN D (ed), Burdened Children: Theory, research and treatment of parentification, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999.
27.
JenningsS, Play Therapy with Children: A practitioner's guide, Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
28.
KosonenM, ‘Maintaining sibling relationships — neglected dimension in child care practice’, British Journal of Social Work26: 6, pp 809–22, 1996.
29.
MainMHesseE, ‘Parents' unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: Is frightened and/or frightening parental behaviour the linking mechanism?’, in GreenbergMCicchettiDCummingsE (eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1990.
30.
MainMKaplanNCassidyJ, ‘Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: a move to the level of representation’, in BrethertonIWatersE (eds), Growing Points of Attachment Theory and Research, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development209: 50, Nos 1–2, pp 66–106, 1985.
31.
MarvinRS, ‘An ethological-cognitive model for the attenuation of mother—child attachment behaviour’, in AllowayTMKramesLPlinerP (eds), Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect: Vol 3, Attachment Behaviour, New York: Plenum Press, 1977.
32.
MarvinRBritnerP, ‘Normative development: the ontogeny of attachment’, in CassidyJShaverP (eds), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.
33.
MarvinRS, ‘Implications of attachment research for the field of family therapy’, in ErdmanPCafferyT (eds), Attachment and Family Systems: Conceptual, empirical, and therapeutic relatedness, Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2003.
34.
McBurnettKLaheyBBRathouzPJLoeberP, ‘Low salivary cortisol and persistent aggression in boys referred for disruptive behaviour’, Archives of General Psychiatry57: 1, pp 38–43, 2000.
35.
McHaleJ PJohnsonDSinclairR, ‘Family dynamics, preschoolers' family representations, and preschoolers' peer relationships’, Early Education and Development10, pp 373–401, 1999.
36.
MekosDHetheringtonEReissD, ‘Sibling differences in problem behavior and parental treatment in divorced and remarried families’, Child Development67: 5, pp 2148–65, 1996.
37.
NeilE, ‘The sibling relationship of adopted children and patterns of contact after adoption’, in MullenderA (ed), We Are Family: Sibling relationships in placement and beyond, London: BAAF, 1999.
38.
NesseRLloydA, ‘The evolution of psychodynamic mechanisms’, in BarkowJHCosmidesLToobyJ (eds), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
RushtonA, ‘An overview of the current research on contact’, What do we know about contact? The interface between practice and research, Adoption and Fostering Study Day, London: Tavistock Clinic, 9 July 1999.
41.
RushtonADanceCQuintonDMayesD, Siblings in Late Permanent Placements, London: BAAF, 2001.
42.
SandersR, Sibling Relationships: Theory and issues for practice, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
43.
SchoreAN, ‘Early relational trauma, disorganized attachment, and the development of a predisposition to violence’, in SolomonMFSiegelD J (eds), Healing Trauma: Attachment, mind, body and brain, New York: WW Norton & Co, 2003.
44.
ShlonskyAWebsterDNeedellB, ‘The ties that bind: a cross-sectional analysis of siblings in foster care’, Journal of Social Service Research29: 3, pp 27–52, 2003.
45.
SimpsonJ, ‘Attachment theory in modern evolutionary perspective’, in CassidyJShaverP (eds), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.
46.
SolomonJGeorgeCDe JongA, ‘Children classified as controlling at age six: evidence of disorganized representational strategies and aggression at home and at school’, Development and Psychopathology7, pp 447–63, 1995.
47.
StewartRB, ‘Sibling attachment relationships: child—infant interaction in the Strange Situation’, Developmental Psychology19: 2, pp 192–99, 1983.
48.
StewartRBMarvinRS, ‘Sibling relations: the role of conceptual perspective-taking in the ontogeny of sibling caregiving’, Child Development55, pp 1322–32, 1984.
49.
TalbotJMcHaleJ, ‘Family-level emotional climate and its impact on the flexibility of relationship representations’, in ErdmanPCafferyT (eds), Attachment and Family Systems: Conceptual, empirical, and therapeutic relatedness, Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2003.
50.
Tarren-SweeneyMHazellP, ‘The mental health and socialization of siblings in care’, Children and Youth Services Review27, pp 821–43, 2005.
51.
TetiD, ‘Conceptualizations of disorganization in the preschool years: integration’, in SolomonJGeorgeC (eds), Attachment Disorganisation, New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.
52.
TetiDMAblardK, ‘Security of attachment and infant—sibling relationships: a laboratory study’, Child Development60, pp 1519–28, 1989.
53.
VollingBBelskyJ, ‘The contribution of mother—child and father—child relationships to the quality of sibling interaction: a longitudinal study’, Child Development63, pp 1209–22, 1992.
54.
WedgePMantleG, Sibling Groups in Social Work: A study of children referred for permanent substitute family placement, Aldershot: Avebury, 1991.
55.
WhelanDJ, ‘Using attachment theory when placing siblings in foster care,’ Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal20: 1, pp 21–35, 2003.
56.
WinnicottD, Playing and Reality, London: Tavistock, 1971.
